This week’s Tune Of The Week is “Ebb And Flow”, written by Carl Jones. This is a modern tune, but seems to have entered the old-time repertoire. The tune first appeared on Carl Jones and Beverly Smith’s 2010 album “Somewhere Over Yonder” and you can hear the original here.
It’s a beautiful slow to mid-tempo tune, and the B part is particularly notable for its crooked time signature. I first heard this in a jam, and it took me some time to figure it out. Online sources tend to say that it moves between 4/4 and 6/4 time – you could also look at it as a 4/4 tune with additional 2/4 bars.
Being a newer tune, there isn’t a lot of history to relate. Carl Jones remains very musically active, in partnership with Erynn Marshall – here is their website.
The North Atlantic Tune List site has a good sheet music transcription and a couple of recordings.
There are quite a few videos online of people playing the tune. The first two feature some fine clawhammer playing:
Here’s my tab and video of how I’m currently playing it in Double D tuning. To play the whole tune through on the lower frets, you have to switch the end of the A part and the whole B part down an octave from the actual notes (it might actually be that the A part is transposed up an octave). It sounds fine, but the first part of the B part melody ends up heading downwards rather than upwards as it does on the fiddle. As a fun alternative, you can play the B part melody up the neck, Ken Perlman style, and it’s nice to switch between the high and low versions to mix things up a little. It looks like Jeremy Aggers does something along these lines on the video above. I included an up the neck variation in the video and tab file.
Great choice, Mark! This tune has been prominent in PNW jams for the last 3-4 years. Definitely one of my favorites on the "D" list. Thanks for posting.
A wonderful choice for Tune of the Week, Mark, I'm surprised it's not been done already! You pick a very elegant and lyrical, version, well done! I was also very impressed with banjukebox's sweet version, very smooth, great job, Pat. I love the eclipse that plays out in the inlay along his banjo neck, I wonder if that's a Cole's Eclipse. Jeremy Aggers does a great job backing up Dave Marder on fiddle, his picking complements the fiddling perfectly.
Alan Kaufman is one of my favorite fiddlers. He is equally adept at old time and bluegrass, very creative but solidly rooted and technically meticulous. He and Vern Imrich, the guitar player in the video, lead a jam every Sunday evening at the Burren pub in Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts. I have been attending the last few months, it's very relaxed and friendly. Players of all levels are welcome and treated with respect.
I first learned this tune about 25 years ago, from banjo picker John Gersh and fiddler Kathy Fletcher, who in those days were leading an old time jam at Sandy's Music, in Central Square, Cambridge. I learned a lot of good tunes at that jam. I have posted two MP3s and one video, each made about a year apart.
The first MP3 was made in 2012 with Don Couchie at our Banjo Hell camp on Geezer Hill, at the Clifftop festival in West Virginia. The second MP3 was recorded in 2013 at a jam that was hosted every Thursday by guitarist Jerry Dallal and fiddler Linda Henry, at their home in Arlington, Massachusetts, and also includes John Reddick and Mike Roguska on fiddles, and my old pal Ed Britt on clawhammer banjo. The video of me picking it solo I made in 2014, but for some reason never posted. I've fixed that oversight here.
Pretty tune, good links for listening, and nice picking, Mark, Pat and Don. Carl Jones is so talented and plays duets with some of my favorite fiddlers. When you mentioned the octave jumping, Mark, I immediately thought of trying the cello banjo, tuned down four steps in an open G equivalent tuning. Here's what I got.
A wonderful choice for Tune of the Week, Mark, I'm surprised it's not been done already! You pick a very elegant and lyrical, version, well done! I was also very impressed with banjukebox's sweet version, very smooth, great job, Pat. I love the eclipse that plays out in the inlay along his banjo neck, I wonder if that's a Cole's Eclipse. Jeremy Aggers does a great job backing up Dave Marder on fiddle, his picking complements the fiddling perfectly.
Alan Kaufman is one of my favorite fiddlers. He is equally adept at old time and bluegrass, very creative but solidly rooted and technically meticulous. He and Vern Imrich, the guitar player in the video, lead a jam every Sunday evening at the Burren pub in Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts. I have been attending the last few months, it's very relaxed and friendly. Players of all levels are welcome and treated with respect.
I first learned this tune about 25 years ago, from banjo picker John Gersh and fiddler Kathy Fletcher, who in those days were leading an old time jam at Sandy's Music, in Central Square, Cambridge. I learned a lot of good tunes at that jam. I have posted two MP3s and one video, each made about a year apart.
The first MP3 was made in 2012 with Don Couchie at our Banjo Hell camp on Geezer Hill, at the Clifftop festival in West Virginia. The second MP3 was recorded in 2013 at a jam that was hosted every Thursday by guitarist Jerry Dallal and fiddler Linda Henry, at their home in Arlington, Massachusetts, and also includes John Reddick and Mike Roguska on fiddles, and my old pal Ed Britt on clawhammer banjo. The video of me picking it solo I made in 2014, but for some reason never posted. I've fixed that oversight here.
Thanks Dan. Lots of great information and a wonderful picked version. I wonder if the tune is a bit older than I thought. Perhaps it was around before the 2010 recording?
Pretty tune, good links for listening, and nice picking, Mark, Pat and Don. Carl Jones is so talented and plays duets with some of my favorite fiddlers. When you mentioned the octave jumping, Mark, I immediately thought of trying the cello banjo, tuned down four steps in an open G equivalent tuning. Here's what I got.
Thanks Janet. That works beautifully on the cello banjo.
A wonderful choice for Tune of the Week, Mark, I'm surprised it's not been done already! You pick a very elegant and lyrical, version, well done! I was also very impressed with banjukebox's sweet version, very smooth, great job, Pat. I love the eclipse that plays out in the inlay along his banjo neck, I wonder if that's a Cole's Eclipse. Jeremy Aggers does a great job backing up Dave Marder on fiddle, his picking complements the fiddling perfectly.
Alan Kaufman is one of my favorite fiddlers. He is equally adept at old time and bluegrass, very creative but solidly rooted and technically meticulous. He and Vern Imrich, the guitar player in the video, lead a jam every Sunday evening at the Burren pub in Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts. I have been attending the last few months, it's very relaxed and friendly. Players of all levels are welcome and treated with respect.
I first learned this tune about 25 years ago, from banjo picker John Gersh and fiddler Kathy Fletcher, who in those days were leading an old time jam at Sandy's Music, in Central Square, Cambridge. I learned a lot of good tunes at that jam. I have posted two MP3s and one video, each made about a year apart.
The first MP3 was made in 2012 with Don Couchie at our Banjo Hell camp on Geezer Hill, at the Clifftop festival in West Virginia. The second MP3 was recorded in 2013 at a jam that was hosted every Thursday by guitarist Jerry Dallal and fiddler Linda Henry, at their home in Arlington, Massachusetts, and also includes John Reddick and Mike Roguska on fiddles, and my old pal Ed Britt on clawhammer banjo. The video of me picking it solo I made in 2014, but for some reason never posted. I've fixed that oversight here.
Thanks Dan. Lots of great information and a wonderful picked version. I wonder if the tune is a bit older than I thought. Perhaps it was around before the 2010 recording?
Mark and Janet, thank you for your nice comments. Janet, that was a wonderful rendition, gets right to the core of the tune with sweetness and perception. Mark, Carl Jones wrote the tune, and I believe the 2010 recording with Beverly Smith is his first, and I think only, recording of it. And I don't mind if you got my name wrong! ??
